Then there's a glaze involved (try to ignore the lumps– I suck at glazes):

And then some slivered, toasted almonds to cover the ugly glaze, because god forbid your dainty tea cake is ugly!

And then, the next morning before rushing off to work, you take much better pictures of your beautiful, fragrant, almondy tea cake:

The result of all this is a delicious, sweet-but-light, extremely girly loaf. Not for the faint-of-heart, almond-wise, though; one of my work friends doesn't like almonds (I know, but we have to allow people their personal tastes), and all it took was a whiff of this cake and she wasn't remotely interested. Hey, that just left more for the rest of us!

Of course, you can have this cake for brunch or dessert or pretty much any time of day– it's not just for teatime. But the almondy sweetness does go perfectly with a nice cuppa. Bottom line: it's easy and delicious and you should make it!